Posts Tagged Tufts Institute of Environment

Since its founding in 1998, the Tufts Institute of Environment (TIE) has created many opportunities to promote environmental issues. The TIE Talks are a lecture series designed to be a causal, comfortable setting for faculty, staff, students and alumni to learn and share.

On Mar. 7, speaker Mary Davis, assistant professor in the department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, will present on her research involving the relationship between economics and public health. When asked about her inspiration for this connection, Davis responded:

“I started working on a large epidemiologic study at Harvard investigating the connection between exposure to diesel exhaust and lung cancer. Since cancer takes a long time to develop, we needed to understand what exposures looked like in the past before environmental monitoring data were available. So I started looking into filling in the gaps with economic data, with the hypothesis that greater levels of economic activity generate air pollution.”

The theme of this semesters TIE Talks is Environmental Justice. Davis offered her own perspective on this semesters theme:

“For me, the term environmental justice broadly encompasses any group that is disproportionately exposed to environmental harm, especially those without the political clout to effect change.”

Moreover, the TIE Talks create another arena for environment-related discussion. Davis commented on the significance of the TIE Talks:

“I think that the TIE Talks provide an excellent opportunity to bring visibility to environmental issues on campus.”

TIE was started as a result of a growing need for more environmental programs and activities at Tufts. Since then, it has supported numerous research projects and events.Today, TIE continues to build more awareness and attention for environmental research, teaching and leadership.